


Self-Defence

by koalathebear



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/M, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-24
Updated: 2015-05-24
Packaged: 2018-04-01 00:17:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,964
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3998695
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/koalathebear/pseuds/koalathebear
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"We can protect her," Oliver tells him, extremely confident in his own abilities.</p><p>"How?" Diggle demands of him sceptically.  "Your mother just shot you, Oliver. You can't even keep yourself safe."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Self-Defence

**Author's Note:**

> I've read a lot of articles about how Oliver is best suited for Laurel or Sara because they're warriors like him and that an Oliver-Felicity pairing is wrong etc. This is my take on it.
> 
> Spoilers for seasons 1 and 2.

Diggle's face is even more serious than usual as they both watch Felicity leave the room in search of the bathroom.

"Oliver, I know you don't want to hurt this girl and you didn't have any choice in telling her who you really were, but we're asking her to get involved in some pretty dangerous stuff."

"We can protect her," Oliver tells him, extremely confident in his own abilities.

"How?" Diggle demands of him sceptically. "Your mother just shot you, Oliver. You can't even keep yourself safe." Diggle's nothing if not honest.

Oliver's face is grim.

*

Felicity gasps as Diggle throws her to the ground. The breath rushes out of her lungs as she lands face down on the ground. "Ah! Ouch!" she exclaims.

"Now the trick is to keep your weight evenly distributed," Diggle tells her as he helps her back to her feet. Felicity squints at him, having put her glasses aside for their training session. John Diggle's suggestion that he teach her some basic self-defence moves had seemed like a good idea at the time but now with every bone in her body aching, she's not so sure.

"I thought the trick was to avoid getting into fights," Felicity points out.

"Yeah, well, Starling City's not the kind of place where you can talk your way out of trouble. Besides, if you're going to be working with us, I'll sleep a lot easier knowing that you can handle yourself - at least a little bit."

As Oliver enters the room, they turn towards him. "How'd it go?" they ask him. 

"Badly for him," he replies briefly and unsmilingly. Oliver Queen is not a man who smiles frequently although he does smile in the presence of Felicity Smoak – something John Diggle has noticed but would never say. Oliver outlines the events of the evening to them before he goes off to see McKenna Hall – the detective he is dating. The detective who has also been assigned to the task force to hunt down the Hood.

McKenna Hall's not unlike Laurel Lance – tough, glamorous, beautiful and capable. Oliver Queen clearly has a type.

*

"How are the lessons going?" Oliver asks at some point when just he and Diggle are in the Lair beneath the Verdant. 

"She's not what you'd call a natural fighter …" Diggle remarks regretfully. 

"She's an MIT graduate with a master's degree in Cyber Security and Computer Sciences, John. What did you expect?" Oliver demands.

"Not a lot of power … I don't think she's got much of a killer instinct, either. But she's got heart and pluck, I'll say that for her."

Oliver nods grimly. "Well if we're doing our job properly, she shouldn't have to fight…" although he's very conscious of the fact that Felicity was captured by the Dodger while both he and Diggle were only metres away from her.

Later, when Helena returns to town, forces Felicity to hack the FBI database and then leaves her under her desk tied up, Oliver realises that he's not always going to be around to protect Felicity. He gets Diggle to step up the self-defence lessons but reminds her that he doesn't want her to try to stay and fight.

"Given the choice, run – run for your life," he tells her grimly. 

"What if someone has a knife to my throat?" she demands. "Running isn't easy then …"

He can't even bring himself to think of a situation where Felicity would have her throat cut so he teaches her how to throw her head back, seize her attackers arm and pull the knife away from her as she twists around and kicks the attacker's groin. He teaches her to fire a gun but she refuses to keep one in her handbag, choosing instead to carry a tazer.

He teaches her how to use his crossbow after she assures him that she slaps a basinful of water every day. She's not terrible, but she's certainly never going to be an archer. 

"Isn't attack supposed to be the best form of self-defence?" she asks him.

"Only if you think you can win … " he points out ruefully.

"Still think you can keep her safe?" John demands after Felicity is captured by Dominic Alonzo. The underground casino older holds a gun to her head before Oliver shoots an arrow into the wall behind Alonzo that contains an explosive device. Felicity's unfazed, stepping out of the way quickly, her expression unafraid. Even when Alonzo's men found the listening device, Felicity had been untroubled and Oliver's lips had twitched to hear her say," You're gonna be really upset when you meet my partner."

Oliver's face becomes even more serious than usual. "You're right – as usual," Oliver concedes. "But what are our options? We're never going to build her up to be a warrior and unless we ask her to stop helping – "

"That's never going to happen and we both know it," Diggle told him. "All we can do it mitigate the risk … we all take risks by our own choice…"

When The Hoods, a murderous group of Vigilantes attack Queen Consolidated, pumping bullets into the board room, Oliver finds himself face to face with a gunman before Felicity clubs the vigilante over the head with a heavy trophy. Oliver returns the favour, reaching out to pull them both to the ground to escape the bullets that are raining around them.

As they lie on the ground amidst the shattered glass, he finds it strange that he, John and Felicity appear to have grown accustomed to a life where their lives are in constant peril …

When the Count captures Felicity and has her tied up in a chair at Queen Consolidated, Oliver blames himself for putting Felicity in danger yet again. He watches as the Count grips Felicity by the hair, pulling hard so that she whimpers in pain. Oliver watches as the Count pulls her against him, holding two syringes of Vertigo against her bare throat. 

The stand-off is only going to end one way and when the Count pulls his arm back to stab Felicity's throat, Oliver puts three arrows in the Count's chest before he can stab Felicity in the throat.

"And I'm sorry," she whispers to him later when they're alone under the Verdant and John Diggle has left them alone to talk. Her face is filled with remorse.

"For what?" he demands, his face stunned.

"I got myself into trouble again, and you killed him. You killed again, and I am sorry that I was the one to put you in a position where you had to make that kind of choice," she whispers, her face distraught and filled with pain and regret.

Oliver stares into her face, unable to comprehend her words. "Felicity … he had you, and he was going to hurt you. There was no choice to make," his voice is low and husky and his eyes dark with unspoken emotion.

Oliver raises an eyebrow when he finds out that Sara's been trying to teach Felicity some basic self-defence. She isn't much more successful than John Diggle but he figures it can't hurt. 

Then Felicity takes a bullet for Sara and he realises how close he has come to losing her …

"You'll always be my girl," he tells her after Sara patches her up, stitching the hole in her shoulder. He means it, although he doesn't let himself dwell on the thought. If he allows himself to think about how important Felicity become to him, the unselfish part of him would try to send her away for her own safety … and he doesn't want to do that. Who's he kidding? He can't bring himself to do that. "Team Arrow", her annoying moniker for their group just could not exist without her.

Instead, he reaches out and cups her face, smiles at his dependable Girl Friday … the Geek Girl who's always been there for him.

When Slade Wilson threatens to take away all those he loves from him, Oliver has Diggle deploys extra security to supervise Oliver's mother, makes sure Roy keeps an eye on Thea and Sara looks out for Laurel.

"What are you doing back here?" Oliver demands when Diggle shows up back at Verdant ahead of time.

"She made me, Oliver," Diggle tells him ruefully. "Came out in her pyjamas with a mug of hot cocoa for me."

Despite Oliver's stress, a smile flickers across his face at the image conjured by Diggle's words. 

"She told me that if Slade wanted to kill her, he could and that there was nothing that we could do to stop him. So go home …"

"That's our girl … she tells it like it is," Oliver concedes ruefully and Diggle nods.

It's Felicity that gives him the idea to outsmart Slade. She believes in him even when he has lost faith in himself.

"Slade took Laurel because he wants to kill the woman I love," he tells her as they stand in the deserted Queen mansion.

"I know, so?" she asks him, the confusion on her face for him to see. Every emotion is always plain on Felicity Smoak's face. There is no artifice, deceit or evil in this woman.

"So - he took the wrong woman," he lies to her. He's always loved Laurel … until he suddenly realises that he doesn't. "I love you ... " he lies and something twists inside of him when he realises that he's _not_ lying. The revelation almost makes him breathless but he continues nonetheless, aware that Slade is watching … listening... "Do you understand?" he asks her, putting the syringe in her hand as she stares at him, her eyes wide and huge.

"Yes," she tells him, comprehension in her eyes. Of course she understands. This is Felicity and she knows him better than anyone.

His deception works and he tricks Slade into kidnapping Felicity - believing that she is the woman Oliver loves. 

"I was surprised. I thought you had a thing for stronger women, but now that I've met her I can see the appeal," Slade taunts him.

Slade's words almost make him laugh. Felicity Smoak is one of the strongest and bravest women he has ever met. Slade's a fool to underestimate her. "She is quite lovely, your Felicity."

 _Your Felicity …_ No one's ever said that before.

As Slade stands before him, a knife to Felicity's throat, he ignores the horrified realisation that washes over him. He forces himself to continue the 'lie', watching in satisfaction as Felicity executes the plan perfectly – exactly as he knew she would.

*

Later, as he and Felicity stand on the shoreline of Liàn Yù, she stares up at him with a rueful smile in her eyes as she babbles uncontrollably in the way that only Felicity can. "That's really smart. How you out-foxed him." He says nothing and she of course continues to run off at the mouth. "Talk about unthinkable. You and me, I mean. When you told me you loved me, you had me fooled." She's always so honest with him, hiding nothing, particularly when she's in full babble mode. "For a second, I maybe you might have meant it," she confides. "What you said … you really sold it."

He smiles his tight smile at her, realising that a lie has inadvertently revealed an unwelcome and unexpected truth. "We both did. Let's go home," he tells her and as they walk back to the plan, he realises that he and Diggle have been wrong all along in assuming that Felicity is the one in need of protection.

These feelings have crept up on him unawares and taken him completely by surprise. He realises with a shock that when it comes to Felicity Smoak, the wary, shuttered and cold Oliver Queen is the one with no means of protection … and completely defenceless …

**end**


End file.
